January Jones credits eating her own placenta, along with a healthy diet and vitamins, to helping her get back to work on the hit series, Mad Men, in a matter of weeks. She told People.com, Your placenta gets dehydrated and made into vitamins. Its something I was very hesitant about, but were the only mammals who dont ingest our own placentas.

Its not witch-crafty or anything, said Jones, who plays Betty on the TV show. I suggest it to all moms. In some cultures, it is commonplace to consume the afterbirth. While placenta encapsulation is not FDA-approved in the U.S., the practice has become more popular as midwifery and home births continue to rise in this country.

Research has shown that the afterbirth is indeed a nutrient-packed pouch, and it has been touted as a way to prevent post-partum depression and promote a fast recovery after pregnancy. There is no hard evidence that humans benefit from consuming it, though.

There is certainly a potential medicinal use, Dr. David Katz, founder of the Yale Prevention Center, said of placentas last year. This is a time-honored cultural practice of eating the placenta. It is nutrient-rich and a source of hormones.

Along with the growing popularity of consuming ones placenta, new companies have seen the demand and offer services to process a womans afterbirth. Many companies will pick up the new moms placenta from the hospital, then steam it, dry it and encapsulate it before returning it to the mom in a few days time. Other reports show that some people make a dish that would normally contain meat, like stew or lasagna, then replace the meat with placenta.

Some experts say the up-and-coming industry is a scam, though, particularly when companies tout the afterbirth as a means to prevent post-partum depression. At

Your placenta gets dehydrated and made into vitamins. Its something I was very hesitant about, but were the only mammals who dont ingest our own placentas.

Taking this in a different direction than most would.

Who does the placenta belong to; the mother or the baby?

The placenta is the transition point between the body of the mother and the child. One side of this membrane is the supply of nutrients and oxygen the other is the pickup point for these supplies for the child.

So in my mind it is in reality the placenta is the property of both the mother and the child.

But of course the mother is the only one of the two capable of ingesting the placenta at the time of birth.

Now all we need are some good recipes for placenta.

You might be able to use a good haggis recipe.

5
posted on 04/02/2012 12:12:12 PM PDT
by Pontiac
(The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)

The Placenta is completely made up of cells from the Baby, so eating the Placenta is basically “Eating the baby’s nutrient absorption apendage” It is formed from the fetus and attaches to the uterine wall to act as a barrier between mother and child preventing certain things from transferring, but allowing things like oxygen, vitamins, minerals and nutrients to pass through.

It is basically a selective membrane with a very large surface area to allow this and fetal blood pumps through it.

So eating a Placenta is basically eating a part of your own Baby!!! However it is a part of the baby that the baby no longer needs after it is born so besides the ick factor, it is exactly like eating human flesh....

Just because animals do it, doesn’t mean humans should, we can eat enough vitamins and minerals to make up for the so called “nutrient loss” caused by it.

I would say eating the afterbirth could potentially lead to Kuru disease, ick....

You know? As nasty and funky as this idea seems at first, I don’t think it’s necessarily all that bad an idea. Seeing as how it’s made into pill form it would be pretty simple to consume. I’ve seen enough mother animals eat theirs to know it’s a common act in the animal kingdom. Maybe it helps the mother in the same vague way children are helped by having their mother’s milk instead of formula. Although how would the woman be certain of what she’s swallowing? What if she gets ripped off? Could be dehydrated liver for all she knows.
Anyway, maybe it’s a good idea. Or not. Hell, I don’t know. It’s not ever going to come up for me.

Kuru is caused by eating the brain of an infected human. Can’t get it from a placenta.

Same with prion disease. Nothing genetic about it. You get it by consuming prions which reproduce without using DNA. Weirdest thing I’ve ever heard of. Cooking doesn’t stop it.

BTW, some vegans consider eating the placenta the only time they can ethically consume animal protein without exploiting animals. So they make stew and have a party. Which come to think of it is weirder than the reproduction of prions.

Well, those other mammals aren't sending their placentas out to be dehydrated and put into little capsules either. They just chow the sucker down raw and whole right on the spot.

Yep, this brings to mind an old joke about a veterinarian who subbed for a country doctor while the latter was on a fishing trip. His only problem while tending to the MD's patients was the reluctance of one new mother to consume the afterbirth.

Never thought I'd see that go from a joke to a sick, twisted actual practice.

[ Kuru is caused by eating the brain of an infected human. Cant get it from a placenta. ]

I disagree respectfully, if the newborn had any head trama during delivery ( not that out of question as the skull of the newborn gets compressed during childbirth ). Proteins could leak through the blood brain barrier and end up in the placenta. Granted this risk could be .000001% but it is still there to say nothing with genetically inheredited malformed proteins living outside of the babies brain.

Anyone who looks that good is going to have detractors (and I have no idea about her politics or the rest of her life) but I've been impressed with her in her role as Betty Draper. She has had some very intense episodes on the show and she has had to become, with each new season, a less pleasant character.

Having listened to much of the audio commentary on the DVDs of the first four seasons, the producers think the biggest challenge is how to make her look less beautiful when the scene calls her to be mean or menacing. The commentaries have often complemented her ability to get more out of a scene than they expected, for what that's worth.

28
posted on 04/02/2012 2:18:18 PM PDT
by OrangeHoof
(Obama: The Dr. Kevorkian of the American economy.)

I gave birth to our oldest on a Friday, and I returned to school on Monday. I did not eat daughter’s placenta. Lol. Ick it was summer when #2 was born. She took more out of me for some reason. When #9 was born, we had just moved across the country, and someone had to enroll the older children in school a few days later. Hubby had just started a new job. So who drove the giant van all over town, waited in lines in 100+ degree temps to accomplish these registrations? Yes, it was moi! And I did it with no placental benefits. And then two weeks later, I had to unenroll a bunch of these same children because it didn’t take a day before we realized the schools were horrible.

Anywho, I have heard about various afterbirth practices from nurses in LDRs. What has become more common is the practice of saving the afterbirth and freezing it in case the child has need for stem cells or whatever that is found in the afterbirth if a medical need arises later in life.

Yes. And just think how much better off we would be if we had been consuming placenta lasagna after each birth! Ugh

I read this article, told hubby about it, and went to eat the lunch he had been making for us. He had cooked some smoked sausage and chicken in a stir fry-like dish. Let’s just say it was not as appetizing after reading the article. Lol

I’m sure there’s a price on the freezing ... probably rolled in with your whole delivery bill so you never notice it. For all I know, they did mine - my husband is in charge of the medical snafu, since he set up the insurance overage at his newest employer.

38
posted on 04/02/2012 3:09:14 PM PDT
by Tax-chick
(Read "Radical Son" by David Horowitz to understand the Left.)

OK, I clicked the link, thinking they must have used a body double. And they did,

"Because January Jones is so slender to begin with, and didn't pack on that much weight, the show apparently had to resort to some of the makeup tricks they used on Elisabeth Moss during Peggy's pregnancy late in season 1, plus a non-pregnant body double for the bath scene," he continued.

41
posted on 04/02/2012 4:44:30 PM PDT
by Responsibility2nd
(NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)

According to SNL cast members, her appearance was their most painful since Steven Seagal. And Seagal is considered the worst host they ever had. I don’t watch “Mad Men” so I can’t comment on that, but her SNL appearance was HORRIBLE.

47
posted on 04/04/2012 1:25:18 PM PDT
by Deb
(Beat him, strip him and bring him to my tent!)

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